Keene’s weekly all-ages social gathering of liberty-minded people is moving to Fritz, “The Place to Eat” at 45 Main St! It’s still happening on Sundays but is now starting at a new time of 2pm.
Why the change so soon? Social Sundays had been taking place 4pm at Vendetta for over a year and the event unfortunately had to be moved to Armadillo’s at 5pm because of Vendetta’s new 21+ policy. Armadillo’s is still a great place to eat and gather, and Social Sundays may expand out there again once the gathering gets too big for Fritz (we may have to just have a block party someday once we hit hundreds), but the reason the event is leaving Armadillo’s for Fritz is because Armadillo’s charged a cover for a band that was to play last Sunday. Mind you, there’s nothing wrong with them doing this, it’s just not conducive to our open-to-the-public Social Sundays event. Turns out that Armadillo’s has bands occasionally play on Sundays and additionally some had complained about the limited adult beverage selection. Considering we want an open event that people don’t have to pay to enter, it was time to move Social Sundays again.
The list of requirements for a place to hold the event is one reason we had to make the time change to 2pm (the other is that Fritz closes at 4pm). We need somewhere to meet that preferably serves food and alcoholic beverages, can handle a crowd of fifty (about our current maximum size, which a year ago would have been 25!), is affordable, all-ages, and has no waitstaff. For an all-ages event open to the public, it’s inevitable that we will be bringing significant business to whichever establishment is chosen, however a restaurant with service doesn’t fit the bill for a large social gathering. People need to be able to mill about and visit other people at other tables, or just stand and chat. Plus, with no waitstaff, costs are kept low for those on a tight budget and there aren’t servers to get upset about people who decide not to order or taking too long to leave the table. Social Sundays is held on Sundays at off-times specifically so we don’t burden establishments by getting in the way of other heavy customer times.
Sundays are a good day for people to get together socially as many people are not working and not many others tend to patronize food establishments on Sundays, especially during off-hours, so our group tends to be the supermajority of the customer base wherever we’ve been, whether it be Cheshire Village Pizza in 2006 (back when it was the Monadnock Porcupines Meet N’ Greet), Panera in 2007, the Colony Mill Food Court in early 2008, Vendetta (4/08-8/09) or Armadillo’s (8/09-10/09). Fritz fits the bill of particulars. The food is varied (here’s their menu) – sandwiches, salads, and their multiple award-winning Belgian fries (Best in NH and Best in the Monadnock region, year after year!) Plus they have a surprisingly large selection of bottled adult beverages (including imports) for a family-friendly establishment, plus they even serve draft beers! The staff is friendly and the atmosphere is casual with couches and a variety of tables and chairs. As an added bonus one of the managers is a local liberty advocate! Fritz is a pretty hip place to meet and eat, so I think it will be great for Social Sundays!
Hopefully this will be the last time the event will need to be moved for a while. Some people have expressed confusion as to where and when Social Sundays is being held. (Understandble, given the recent changes and addition of a 21+ Social Sundays at 5pm back at Vendetta, though the 21+ event may be changing soon to an 18+ event at a private club. Watch this blog for the announcement.) For anyone experiencing confusion, you are encouraged to visit our calendar anytime at Calendar.FreeKeene.com. There you will find several things to do here in the Keene area. Clicking on one will bring you to more details on the event. Please join us starting tomorrow, 11/1 at 2pm for the all-ages Social Sundays, now at Fritz at 45 Main St. in Keene. Here’s the forum discussion.
